The Hateful Eight Will Have Two Different Theatrical Cuts

Quentin Tarantino sure is making the 70mm roadshow version of The Hateful Eight one of the must-see cinematic experience of the holiday season.

Tarantino reveals that the 70mm cut of The Hateful Eight is over three hours in length, yes that’s right. The Hateful Eight will stand as Tarantino’s longest single, feature-film to date. Not only will the film utilize Ultra Panavision 70mm photography and include an overture and intermission, but will feature an additional six minutes of runtime, bringing its total length up to three hours and two minutes.

“The roadshow version has an overture and an intermission, and it will be three hours, two minutes. The multiplex version is about six minutes shorter, not counting the intermission time, which is about 12 minutes…Nor did I want to treat the multiplex release like this left-handed version, either,” he said. So, with a bit of tweaking of certain scenes, Tarantino tried to better suit the separate viewing experiences.

“The 70 is the 70, you’ve paid the money. You’ve bought your ticket. So you’re there. I’ve got you. But I actually changed the cutting slightly for a couple of the multiplex scenes because it’s not that. Now it’s on Showtime Extreme. You’re watching it on TV and you just kind of want to watch a movie on your couch. Or you’re at Hot Dog on a Stick and you just want to catch a movie.”

The sequences in question play in “big, long, cool, unblinking takes” in the 70mm version, Tarantino said. “It was awesome in the bigness of 70, but sitting on your couch, maybe it’s not so awesome. So I cut it up a little bit. It’s a little less precious about itself.”

It’ll be interesting to see if the Weinstein Co. can retrofit more theaters to accommodate the 70mm projection needed for this roadshow version. Los Angeles and New York City might not have a problem, but what about that die-hard cinephile in the mid-west? At least both the multiplex and roadshow versions are only slightly tweaked (there will be no huge narrative change to the film’s story) and both were cut by Tarantino and his editing crew so don’t feel too bad if you don’t end up seeing the roadshow presentation.

With two versions of the film being widely advertised, here’s hoping both cuts will make it onto Blu Ray one day. Though with Tarantino’s disdain for home entertainment, it wouldn’t be surprising if it goes the way of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair that we’ve been waiting years for.